Welfare for stray Dogs

Welfare of Stray Dogs, or WSD, is a Mumbai based organization that aims to control the street dog population and eradicate rabies in a humane, scientific way. Along with this, they also focus on promoting the adoption of indies, raising awareness on general behaviour of dogs, and first-aid treatments.

Starting the year online, though we all shared a passion and love for working with animals, there was a lot of uncertainty and apprehension as to what we could and would be expected to do. However, after several sessions spent brainstorming, we finally came up with some ideas. Starting out with a fundraiser, a few of us set up a Ketto page raising Rs 50,000 to provide for food and other monthly rations. Additionally, we divided ourselves into various groups to ideate creatives for the WSD social media account, from reels to posts. Our creatives ranged from festive reels for Holi, Valentine’s Day, and World Rabies Day to posts regarding adoptions, WSD merchandise, upcoming sales and others. We also made a special campaign focused on sponsorships for the dogs at the kennel. Through this social media engagement, we were able to get sponsorships for all the dogs! A few of us also made brochures, presentations and infographics on what WSD does, sponsorship/adoption information, procedures, which can be used throughout the year.

We also had the privilege of interacting with the CEO of WSD, Mr. Abodh Aras, who educated us about dog behaviour and the dos and don’ts – for dogs and humans – when giving first aid. Thanks to the relaxation of Covid restrictions later on, a several of us were also able to visit the kennel on our own and finally interact with the dogs and people who we had worked online with, which was a really enjoyable experience. Some of people who were initially even slightly scared of the dogs found themselves gaining confidence and comfort around them- enough to walk a few of them at the kennel! Currently, we are working to collaborate with the Cookery Club at school to produce a batch of dog treats every month for the kennel and hope to continue visiting them in our own time.

 

Volunteering for WSD in this last year has been a great learning experience for all involved. We pushed ourselves to be creative, more knowledgeable and even risk takers. Though we did not get to interact with the dogs physically, we are proud that we created campaigns that had a positive effect on their livelihood.

 

Written by: Jiah Hara and Siddhaarth Golia